Sounds like Wall Street thinks the Democrats will win big this election cycle.

"The idea of gridlock is not a problem for the market, because it means nothing of real import disturbs the business environment," says Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "Businesses can adjust to minor disturbances."

At present, a Democratic win in the House of Representatives is largely priced into the stock market, which has rallied to new highs through the campaign process thus far. Futures markets put the likelihood of a Democratic takeover, or at least 15 net wins in the House, at 63.1%, according to InTrade.

Odds of a Democratic takeover in the Senate have been increasing of late, but remain at 32.6%, according to InTrade. In the Senate, the Democrats must win a net six seats to gain control.

10/20/06

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- A candidate for state superintendent of schools said Thursday he wants thick used textbooks placed under every student's desk so they can use them for self-defense during school shootings.

"People might think it's kind of weird, crazy," said Republican Bill Crozier of Union City, Oklahoma, a teacher and former Air Force security officer. "It is a practical thing; it's something you can do. It might be a way to deflect those bullets until police go there."

Crozier and a group of aides produced a 10-minute video Tuesday in which they shoot math, language and telephone books with a variety of weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9mm pistol. The rifle bullet penetrated two books, including a calculus textbook, but the pistol bullet was stopped by a single book.

Crozier said the demonstration shows that a student could effectively use a textbook as protection in a school shooting.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman was skeptical.

"He probably needs to take a look at some ballistics tests," Lt. Pete Norwood said. "There are some rifles not even Webster's Dictionary will stop."

10/4/06

Motley Fool has a new web feature. It's called CAPS . It's hard to tell if this is a game, or a way to make money.

How does CAPS work?

Motley Fool CAPS operates from a simple premise: Working together, we can improve our investing results. This revolutionary new service pools the resources of the Motley Fool Community to help you identify the best stocks at the best times to buy them -- and which stocks to avoid, too!

Step 1. Players rate stocks.

At the heart of CAPS are thousands of predictions. Players predict whether stocks will outperform or underperform the S&P 500 and over what time frame this will happen.

We compile the data, showing all the picks you have made and all the picks for individual stocks.

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As stocks change in value, we evaluate players' predictions. Players receive an accuracy percentage, indicating how often they make correct predictions and a score, which is the percentage by which their picks beat the S&P 500.

Step 3. Players receive CAPS ratings.

Based on the performance of their picks, CAPS players receive a percentile rating (from 1 to 100). This rating indicates the percentage of people that player is outperforming. The higher the rating, the better!

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 2 — A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

The account by Sean McCormack came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, 2001, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible” she ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

According to this article at Yahoo, regular drinkers earn more money. Of course, you're probably spending that on alcohol.

Regular drinkers make 10% to 14% more money than those who do not drink, according to the study, conducted by the Journal of Labor Research, published quarterly by the Department of Economics at George Mason University, and the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank.

The study also concluded that men who drink socially -- defined as visiting a bar at least once a month -- earn an additional 7% more than those who do not. The same correlation was not found for women, however.

India bans alcohol advertising. Obviously, brewers would prefer to get their message out to consumers if given the chance. (Have you watched a football game on U.S. television lately?)

So the makers of Haywards 5000 beer came up with a shockingly clever idea: They introduced a soda with exactly the same name. Thus, they can now advertise on television for Haywards 5000 -- the soda, of course.

And yet beer drinkers must have found the message persuasive. According to the Wall Street Journal, sales of Haywards 5000 beer tripled after the ad campaign